Comments on: Rally for ‘Social Security fairness for teachers’

By: Norton

Norton — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:13:28 +0000

Here is the problem . Public service and teachers unions decided a long time ago that social security wasn’t good enough for the them . Who wants to wait
until 66 to retire . Just let the tax payers make sure
there pentions are funded , here in Illinois they even
passed a bill that guarantees these pentions . This
bad economy has put a spot light on this unfunded
pention problem . Why not take all these pentions and
fold them into social security , where they should have been in the first place .

By: becjy

becjy — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 17:50:02 +0000

Teachers who work in the private sector and pay into Social Security from that job, should receive benefits based on the time/amount paid into the syastem, just like anyone else. It is EARNED. It is NOT a windfall, and it is not “double-dipping”, as it is a separate thing altogether. Why should they NOT receive the EARNED benefits? I don’t think anyone who is in the situation feels that they should receive more than the benefits they have contirbuted to. Many of us MUST work another job to support our families due to the low pay we receive as teachers.. If we are not going to be allowed to tap into the earned benefits, then we should be exepmted ftom paying the Social Security tax, then we could fund our own separate savings with the money. Why should we contribute to a system that we are not able to use? I am donating thousands of dollars of extra money every year to others, to the detriment of my own family.

By: joe bogowski

joe bogowski — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:38:56 +0000

It is estimated that the United States is going to spend over 4 Trillion Dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – and that doesn’t include the cost of rebuilding those rat-hole countries. Meanwhile, the government says it can’t afford to pay Earned Social Security Benefits to seniors effected by WEP & GPO because it would cost 62 Billion Dollars over a ten year period. What is wrong with this country?

By: Robby Schultz

Robby Schultz — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:09:54 +0000

While I am in complete agreement that WEP and GPO should be repealed, I feel it is also important to note that this is nice little PR ploy by our representatives.

Similar legislation has been proposed over the last 5 years or more with substantial bipartisan support (in fact cosponsoring it) to no avail. The bills never leave committee, thus there is no reason to worry about passing it.

Every cosponsor (304 & 29) can go home and point to these bills as fighting for the people, but they obviously are not.

I hope it passes, but I am tired of the PR positioning of our politicians.

You can see my post on the subject at my blog – The Educator’s Retirement – that points to several facts involved.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:50:25 +0000

Hey, Jeff,
The money that my spouse contributed to Social Security for the twenty years I was not employed in the workforce was also my money, according to community property laws. I later became a full time teacher, earning a retirement pension of about half of what I would have if I had worked all those early years.
Homemakers who go into other professions or live in other states would not sacrifice their part of family SS earnings. Why is it “welfare” for me to ask for something back from all those years we contributed to Social Security?

By: ~ R ~

~ R ~ — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:41:25 +0000

I’m not mixing up anything. The scenario typifies how the GPO/WEP affects people in 15 states.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:17:16 +0000

Richard- you are mixing up “earned” benefits with spousal-benefits, which are more like social welfare gifts of other people’s money The calculations you describe are for the Government Pension Offset for the free spousal benefits, not benefits based on the recipient’s earnings. They are there because, for all those in the Social Security system, spousal benefits are offset dollar for dollar by benefits based on the spouse’s own earnings. It is designed to equalize that treatment for those who get government pensions instead Social Security pensions.

For Social Security benefits base upon one’s own earnings, it the Windfall Elimination Provision that applies. The following chart can explain show how that affects benefits from earnings.
http://www.ssa.gov/retire2/wep-chart.htm

By: ~ Richard ~

~ Richard ~ — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:11:59 +0000

If a senior citizen receives a monthly public-sector pension of $600 and qualifies for a Social Security benefit before Offset of $450, two-thirds (2/3) of the $600 (or $400) is subtracted from the Social Security $450 — resulting in a monthly Social Security benefit of $50….instead of $450. (Spousal-benefits are virtually eliminated, also.)

Yet, the above senior citizen has paid the same Social Security taxes for the required number of years — exactly as a private-sector citizen has done.

HOW CAN THIS BE FAIR?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:24:19 +0000

John- I guess you didn’t bother to read the post that John W and I left that explained reason for the provisions. What happened to your students when they didn’t know what they talking about because they didn’t read the material? Politicians are lying demagogues on this issue and do so mostly with impunity thanks to so-called reporters.

Immigrants who never worked aren’t eligible for Social Security except through spousal or dependent status from those who have. They can be eligible for SSI, which is handled by the Social Security Administration but is paid out of general fund revenues.

I agree that Obama wants to give amnesty to illegal immigrants and that will be a huge cost to the Social Security System and Medicare because of the incomes of that group.

By: John

John — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 04:41:30 +0000

Jeff: A problem is that CA teachers who earned full social security credits outside of teaching are not allowed to collect social security EVEN IF they’ve paid into two separate systems (State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) as a teacher, and Social Security (SS) outside of teaching).

It’s called the unequally applied (so called) ‘Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision.’ That is my circumstance and those of many of my retired teacher colleages who paid fully from their wages into two systems from two (private & public sector) income sources. This provision, and my ineligibility for SS was explained to me by a MEXICAN american SS worker. This MEXICAN american also explained that her mother, who came from Mexico, never worked in this country was eligible for, and got, over $800 per month of SS.

Obama will legalize illegal immigrants and give them what working Americans have paid into to garner their votes for his party and a second term in the White House.

Here’s some crap from/about Obama on this issue back when he was a Senator with Presidential ambitions. He’s a fraud who will say what he has to say to achieve his own ends. He’s the “change” his political cronies and illegal MEXICAN free loaders can “believe in.”
——————————————-

In an October 22 letter, Senator Obama expressed his clear support for repeal of the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision. In his letter directed specifically to NEA members, Senator Obama states:

“Nobody should be penalized for serving our children, and that’s why I support repealing the GPO/WEP and will work to do so as President…the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset have a serious detrimental impact on hundreds of thousands of educators and your spouses. That’s why as a Senator I co-sponsored the Social Security Fairness Act, which would repeal these provisions….I believe that we have a responsibility to take care of workers who have devoted their lives to public service and that we shouldn’t discourage young people from working in these essential jobs at a time when so many teachers are at or near retirement age and we’re struggling to replace them.”

“I will work to repeal GPO and WEP, but I won’t stop there. We need to think now about how we provide retirement security for today’s retirees and workers retiring 20 or 30 or more years down the road. Let me tell you about my comprehensive plan. It starts with protecting Social Security. It is one of the most successful social programs in American history, and we need to preserve and maintain it, without risky privatization plans….Improving retirement security for educators…will be a high priority for me as President.”

“I greatly appreciate the support I have from the NEA, and I look forward to working with you as President to create the changes we all want to see in our country.”

Stay Up-To-Date! The latest GPO/WEP news is posted on NEA’s Legislative Action Center at http://www.nea.org/lac/socsec/index.html.

In an earlier 6/5/2007 letter Obama writes:
Dear Robert:

Thank you for contacting me with your opposition to the GPO/WEP.S.206, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2007, would correct the inequities that the GPO/WEP creates for many Illinois retirees. I am pleased to inform you that I am a cosponsor of this legislation.

S. 206 has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee. While I do not serve on that panel, I will urge my colleagues to consider this important legislation. Robert, thank you once again for writing. Please stay in touch in the future.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator (& lying FRAUD)